In the topic sentences provided in the other examples on the previous page, the controlling ideas are: The subjection of children to forced labour through trafficking has age and gender dimensions. The ILO alone cannot respond to all the recommendations of the Commission's report. For this activity, do the following: Select the word or phrase that reveals the controlling idea of the paragraph. This controlling idea will be part of the topic sentence. Click on the Show Solutions link to check your answers. Example 1. Step 1: Write a thesis statement The first step to developing your topic sentences is to make sure you have a strong thesis statement. The thesis statement sums up the purpose and argument of the whole paper. Thesis statement example Step 1. Decide on a controlling idea and create a topic sentence. Paragraph development begins with the formulation of the controlling idea. This idea directs the paragraph's development. Often, the controlling idea of a paragraph will appear in the form of a topic sentence. A good topic sentence contains both a topic and a controlling idea or opinion. Weak example. In this paragraph, I am going to discuss the rising suicide rate among young professionals. (This topic sentence provides a main idea, but it does not present a controlling idea.) Stronger example. The example topic sentence suggests the paragraph topic is "the economy," and the controlling idea about the economy is how it "plays a role in an increase" in opioid addition. The signal word "also" connects this topic as an additional example or contributing factor to the opioid epidemic, the focus of the paper. 8sCM7C.

topic sentence and controlling idea examples